埃文·威廉姆斯5月21日在自己的 Medium 博客上写了一篇长长的博文，他有新想法了，呵呵。他翻来复去说的就一个意思，Medium 不是出版工具。她是一个网络，一个思想和人的网络。威廉姆斯是一个勇于不断修正自己的人。其实，在互联网上，也只能摸着石头过河。
其实，威廉姆斯说的网络，就是社交，他想更向Twitter 靠近。
埃文·威廉姆斯的博文，引发了广泛的关注。新兴媒体网站Buzzfeed发表长篇述评认为Medium的定位将发生改变，目标为“一个读者与作者的社交网络”。财富杂志网站也跟进发表了一篇长篇述评，其结论写在标题里：“MorelikeTwitter,itseems”（看起来，更象Twitter）。
威廉姆斯有一次曾经坦承，他在向他妈妈解释推特（Twitter）究竟是一个什么东西的时候，遇到了麻烦。他怎么解释，他妈妈怎么不明白。这一次，他在向所有的人解释Medium是什么的时候，又遇到了同样的麻烦。他妈妈不明白推特是什么，一点关系没有；但是，大家不明白Medium究竟是什么，就比较麻烦了，这使得威廉姆斯两年多来始终需要回答这个问题，并接受质疑。这个任性的人，有时候显得很不耐烦，但是，这种不耐烦进一步加剧了人们的质疑。
威廉姆斯自己关于Medium至少有N 种说法，他人关于Medium 的说法有N+种。这些说法交叉重迭，大同小异。
比如，A，“重新认识出版业”，彻底摆脱传统媒体阴影的高质量互联网内容平台——这是威廉姆斯自己的说法：我做的第三个内容发布平台。B，供人们分享超过140个字的想法和内容，分享对象不局限于朋友，也就是长篇，多对多，弱社交性。C，下一代网上杂志。D，神秘的内容管理系统CMS，比博客平台（Blogger）要复杂，但两者的目的相似。E，第三代博客：第一代个人出版平台比较适合严肃的写作；第二代个人出版平台Twitter、Tumblr等更适合碎片化传达，Medium介于两者之间。F，互联网上的珍稀古玩，或者征服互联网的神器，这是戴卫·卡尔的说法，聪敏而又主流的说法。
Medium曾经收购了一本拥有收费墙的网上杂志 Matter，收购后，仍然保留原有的运营模式。2014年7月，Matter推倒了收费墙，进一步投入人力与资源重新定位。重启Matter的时候，威廉姆斯写了一篇博文。他在文章中直截了当地说：“是的，我们就是媒体（出版商）。”（Yes,we’reapublisher）他显然被种种问题与质疑惹恼了。他带着明显的情绪继续说道：
“自从Medium发布以来，一系列的问题接踵而至，现在，是我们明确地澄清这些问题的时候了：第一，Medium是一个不容置疑的平台。我们拥有一个顶尖的产品团队在把Medium打造成世界上最好的供个人和机构发布他们的故事和想法的地方。第二，这个平台上，有一个媒体（出版商）就叫Medium，重新设计打造Matter是迄今为止我们最雄心勃勃的媒体导向的努力，这可能并不是我们的最后一个努力。
我们在乎的是能够让最好的故事与思想得到讲述，让它们以最完美的方式得以呈现，同时，让它们能够迅速有效地找到正确的受众。其中，有一些故事与思想，来自与我们协同工作的一流的编辑、记者、作家，我们在内容方面进行更多努力的原因是，我们觉得，要为大家把Medium这个平台营建得更为宜人，不存在更好的办法。”
威廉姆斯是动真格的，他重金打造的网上杂志，不是Matter一本，而是无数本。其中相当引人注目的还有Backchannel。Backchannel由从连线杂志挖来的名编辑斯蒂文·赖维（StevenLevy）主刀。斯蒂文·赖维曾经在美国新闻周刊供职十几年，是其最重要的科技记者和编辑。在整个Medium上，重金砸出来的重磅文章越来越多。这就是埃文·威廉姆斯期待的方向？不知道。但是，这样的持之以恒的作派，的确展现了所谓平台型媒体的魅力。也许，Medium暂时还算不上一个卓越的平台，但肯定已经是一个卓越的媒体。新一代网上杂志，不是浪得虚名。
这一回，威廉姆斯要推进的转型，究竟意味着什么呢？大伙儿正拭目以待。
埃文·威廉姆斯有新想法了，呵呵。他说，Medium 不是出版工具。这是一个网络。一个思想和人的网络。威廉姆斯是一个勇于不断修正自己的人。其实，在互联网上，也只能摸着石头过河。网页链接
我觉着，他所说的网络，其实是社交，他想更向 Twitter 靠近。//@王武彬Ecko: 问题是目前似乎不是网络结构？
埃文·威廉姆斯昨天的一篇博文，引发了广泛的关注。Buzzfeed 发表长篇述评 网页链接 认为Medium的定位将发生改变，目标为“一个读者与作者的社交网络”。财富杂志的长篇述评的结论是：“More like Twitter, it seems” 网页链接
What’s Going On At Medium?
The publisher/publishing platform is rejiggering itself as a social network for readers and writers — and reconsidering some of its publications and ideals in the process.
posted on May. 22, 2015, at 3:04 a.m.
BuzzFeed News Reporter
Late last night, Medium CEO Ev Williamspublished a blog postabout the company’s future. As is often the case when discussing the sleek publishing platform/publisher/startup founder’s soapbox, Williams’ post was somewhat hard to parse.
In the post, Williams writes that “Medium is not a publishing tool. It’s a network. A network of ideas that build off each other. And people.” He also notes that “in the last few months, we’ve shifted more of our attention on the product side from creating tool value to creating network value.” It’s a definite change in strategy for Williams, whonoted in Februarythat “Medium the product is a publishing platform” and that “Medium the company is both a publisher and a platform, but our effort is to build the best publishing platform there is.”
If you’re confused, you’re not alone. So what does Williams’ latest Medium strategy missive really mean?
Essentially, Medium is about to look — or at leastfeel— less like a traditional internet word factory and a lot more like a social network. Company sources and individuals familiar with its strategy tell BuzzFeed News that companywide changes intended to increase user sign-ups and interactions are on the way, with a greater emphasis on increasing the number of logged-in users, and getting them to share content with their friends and favorite posts by clicking on heart-shaped icons. It’s also moving away from its sole emphasis on longform content and time spent on the site. As a part of those changes, the company is floating plans to restructure the management of one of its flagship collections,The Message. It also silently closed down one of its best-known sites,Re:form, in early May.
Medium launched in 2012 as yet another blogging tool — but with a prettier interface. Its founder, Ev Williams, had also founded Twitter and Blogger, and the move initially seemed like another foray into personal publishing. But it quickly began paying for high-quality editorial works, and brought on a slew of notable editors and writers to make that happen. It hired hotshot literary agent Kate Lee in 2012, and former Wired.com editor-in-chief Evan Hansen in 2013. It acquired the young but highly respected science publicationMatterthat same year and it was later relaunched as a successful (Matterwas nominated for two National Magazine Awards this year) longform magazine. In 2014, it poached legendary writer Steven Levy away fromWiredto start its tech site,Backchannel. It brought on some of the Web’s best independent voices — Andy Baio, Paul Ford, Virginia Heffernan, Anil Dash, and Rex Sorgatz, among others — to write forThe Message, a collection itdescribedas “a modern version of Dorothy Parker’s Algonquin Round Table.” Within two years of its launch, Medium built a reputation as home to some of the best writing to be found anywhere.
At the heart of this, and the rubric under which it paid many of its writers, was a metric called TTR, or total time reading — a measurement of how long a reader spent on a page. While Medium once called this “the only metric that matters,” company brass has recently referred to that internally as a misleading metric, and is backing away from it in favor of others that measure how its audience is interacting with the stories on the site.
According to sources, Williams held a “strategy update” meeting in late April to discuss the company’s direction and to address, among other issues, generally plateaued traffic across the publishing platform. In the meeting Williams and Hansen, the head of Medium’s Content Labs, decided the platform’s main goal would be to prioritize and increase engagement across the publishing network. Specifically, to encourage more readers to create accounts and sign in to Medium.
For Williams, who has long championed Medium as a social network for reading and writing (one of his posts is titled “Don’t Write Alone”), the refocusing is about drawing users into the platform and getting them to engage, as is standard practice on networks like Facebook and Twitter. In the meeting, Hansen and Williams expressed concern that readers can enjoy most of Medium’s content and even many of its recommendation features without logging in — unlike on most social networks. Williams and Hansen noted in the meeting that historically, the company has done a poor job of explaining the value of Medium’s user features, a problem that they blamed on the new user onboarding process.
The focus now, according to one source, is to redouble efforts into beefing up Medium’s network and community and focus less on top-line article consumption. As a result, Medium’s editorial properties are being reorganized.Re:form, the company’s design vertical, was killed after the company failed to find a sponsor to replace BMW.
According to an individual familiar with the reorganization discussions,Matterstaffers will now manage theThe Message’s contributors. There have also been internal conversations as recently as March suggesting thatMatterwill change its URL and subsumeThe Messageas a vertical/subdomain of that site.The Messageand its writers are expected to remain their own franchise inside the publication. Across Medium, publications likeMatterwill begin to prioritize work that encourages readers to interact with the content by creating and submitting response posts, writing comments, and highlighting and sharing passages from the articles. When reached, Williams did not respond to requests for comment about plans forThe MessageorMatter.
For Medium contributors, compensation incentives could change, too. After the strategy meeting, Hansen and Williams noted that Medium’s contributor compensation bonuses, which are normally paid out based on the TTR metric, might be replaced by a different engagement metric. Hansen and Williams hinted that rather than TTR, metrics such as follows, new-user recruitment, and article recommendations across Medium’s social network could factor into writer bonuses in the future.
This is a notable change in editorial strategy: In November 2013,MediumtoutedTTR as “the only metric that matters.”
Today, it seems “the only metric that matters” is now far less important.
Here’s how Medium staffer Edward Lichtydescribed it in a responseto Williams’ blog post today:
Publications on Medium — those we own, as well those published by others — are still important. Not only can they publish great stories and cultivate great writers, but they can start, lead and participate in big, exciting conversations. However, just because we call them “publications” doesn’t mean but they need to adhere to the conventions of traditional periodicals. In fact, we’d be selling ourselves short if they did.
That sounds like a win-win. However, some writers fear that the changes will not only impact the quality of the work, but add additional financial strains. “The worry is that they’re just going to slam everybody,” a source at Medium told BuzzFeed News. “A lot more work, a lot less money, and less institutional support.”
Some staffers fear that transforming Medium from a publishing platform and publisher into a full-fledged social reading network is a daunting task, and refocusing the company’s editorial strategy around engagement could create problems the writers and editors currently producing high-quality original work. Reimagining Medium around a metric other than TTR is likely to change the way many publications will behave and be viewed. According to a source, Hansen and Williams acknowledged in a strategy meeting that organizing the company around time spent reading meant prioritizing paying writers to write lots of longform content in order to keep people on the site. Some fear that now, the company could shift away from prioritizing traditional articles in favor of work that is more interactive. That doesn’t mean that outlets likeMatterwill stop publishing great, ambitious longform work entirely, but that they will likely also be geared toward fostering reader engagement.
These changes are already seeping into Medium. This morning,Matterpublished astylized quizby Steven Levy. On Twitter, a few Medium andMatterstaffers noted it’s the company’s first quiz.
Two weeks ago, Hansen argued that Medium’s editors should lead by example, and model the behavior in their own posts that would cause readers to be more engaged and more likely to log in. This week Hansen published a short poll asking users to respond to the question “Should U.S. Make College Tuition Free?” In the post Hansen asks readers to “just use Medium’shighlight toolto let me know what you think of the free tuition proposal. To participate, log in to Medium and highlight the answer below that best corresponds to your views. Vote once. You can join in on mobile by using ouriOS app.” It just takes a minute, but it’s very engaging.
What does Medium want to be when it grows up? More like Twitter, it seems
MAY 21, 2015, 5:49 PM EDT
Founder and former Twitter CEO Evan Williams says Medium is changing in order to emphasize network effects and interaction rather than just blog-style publishing
Defining exactly whatMediumis has never been an easy task. Ever since former Twitter CEO and Blogger co-founder Evan Williams first launched the company in 2012, it has been somewhatdifficult to pin downIs it a platform where anyone can publish? Yes. Is it a magazine-style publisher that pays for journalism? Yes. To make matters worse, it continues to change before our eyes—and the latest shift seem to bring it closer to being a longer-form version of Twitter.
According to Williams, in a post he published on the site Wednesday night, Mediumis not a publishing tool—a statement that might confuse some of the writers who have been using it as exactly that for the past year or so, not to mention some of the staffers who have come to think of publishing as the core of what Medium does.
Certainly the earliest adopters of Medium did so because it was a great writing tool: the user interface when you author a post is excellent, an intuitive and easy-to-use series of features. It also allowed those without a personal blog to get “reach” by being promoted on the site by Medium editors and users. Along with LinkedIn, it has quickly become the default place for entrepreneurs and CEOs to write about themselves.
So if it’s not a publishing tool, then what is it? It takes Williams a little while to get to the pointin his post, but in a nutshell it sounds like it’s a social network, or at least it wants to be one. Instead of long-form journalism, the focus is on interaction—which occurs in part through featureslike notes(Medium’s version of comments) and highlighting, but also through short responses to existing posts that are published and appear as their own posts, a la Tumblr or Twitter.
“In the last few months, we’ve shifted more of our attention on the product side from creating tool value to creating network value. What does this mean? Obviously, one form of that value is distribution… but the more interesting bit of network value we’re starting to see a lot more of is qualitative feedback.”
In this, the Medium founder’s thinking has pretty clearly been influenced by the contrast between his two most famous creations: Blogger was a great publishing tool, he says in his post, but it didn’t have enough social elements and so it failed to grow. Twitter, however, was all about the network effect; the actual writing and publishing tool was so small and inconsequential that it barely existed at all. The only important thing was the connection to and interaction with others on the network.
“My next ‘blogging’ tool had far fewer features — and way more users. No one moves where they tweet because some other tool has better formatting or profile customization. That’s because a tiny percentage of the value Twitter brings comes from the software itself. It’s all about the network — the connection with other users and the content they create.”
Medium has already madea number of changesin an attempt to become more Twitter-like: the service launched the ability to publish much shorter posts, with alightweight, Twitter-style tooladded to the homepage. And it also added support for tags, which would allow users to browse through topic-style feeds.
Transforming the service from being a kind of networked digital-magazine publisher into a social network is a tall order, however. In a piece at BuzzFeed, writer Charlie Warzelgoes into some depthabout the impact that some of the changes have had at Medium, including a shuffling of responsibilities related to some of the site’s “magazines” or collections, including Matter and The Message. Some staffers seem concerned that the new focus will mean more work and less reward.
What Medium is going through feels very much like what other media players are also struggling with: the Warzel piecetalks abouthow Williams and editorial content head Evan Hansen are concerned about increasing engagement and getting users to log in more and interact—which also sounds very much like the challenge Twitter is facing.
The changes Medium is implementing seem designed to try andlower the barrier toparticipation with the site’s content. But will those changes just dilute the very thing that made Medium different from the rest of the marketplace? If nothing else, they will probably add fuel to the idea that what Twitter and Medium should do is merge, since they seem more and more like two different expressions of the same impulse (although Williams’ departure from Twitter was less than graceful).
